All of September and most of October the building continued. In mid-September we had guests overnight returning from Canada and Garry was determined to have the toilet working in the bathroom in the house and he did. The hole he started was turned into a septic system by Seva and Timor that week, and Garry got the toilet hooked up the day they came. The tub had been in and out of the room twice at that point- the carpenters were plastering the drywall and did not like working around it. Garry and I put the tile on the floor and then he installed the tub for the third and final time and after we put up the wall tile he got the shower doors in place (we bought them a couple weeks after we came when we were tired of the boys accidently shooting water all over the other bathroom while trying to use the handheld shower) The new showerhead is wonderful, and the temperature is more steady, I seemed to either burn or freeze when washing my hair before!
By the beginning of October, the kitchen cabinets were in place and we bought a new fridge and put it in the new kitchen so I could quit using the one in the summer kitchen (there were mice and somehow they were getting into the old fridge in there and leaving teeth marks on the butter) So I carry stuff out to cook food unless I can use the appliances we bought- the microwave and slow cooker ( there are no electric fry pans for sale here) Garry picked out a combination microwave-grill, and unfortunately he accidently grilled his plastic Dairy Farmers of Manitoba travel mug while reheating his coffee and melted the threads so that he cannot drink coffee while driving anymore. The new freezer on the fridge is super- we had a power outage for 14 hours and everything stayed frozen solid!
Our carpenters were local guys from the village. They also worked at the gas station on the highway so they normally worked two days here and two days there. In October it became a contest as they worked plastering every centimetre of drywall, on their days off, we would put tile on the floor or walls. Finally they finished the final sanding and we started painting the beams, ceiling, and walls of the new bedroom. We had company coming from Steinbach (they were touring Mennonite sites with Victor) and we planned to put them in the new room. The second coat of paint went up the day before they arrived and the laminate floor went over the cement that morning, but we were ready! We were now eating in the new kitchen/family room even though it didn’t get painted until the next week. With that finished we headed to Crimea for a short vacation which featured fortresses and the secret sub base museum, while the family room floor and the radiators were painted. We came home and bought the couch and chairs and finally sat down together and watched Star Wars videos. THe washer moved into this bathroom, but the weather is drizzley most days so I hand stuff on a rack in the house most days.
So now that we are done with reno- we have settled into a weekday routine. Garry is usually up early making coffee and checking the news on the Satellite TV (we don’t get North American TV but we have English news, travel and the Disney channel, and a lot of Ukrainian, and Russian ones) The boys work on homeschooling in the morning while Garry studies Russian and takes a long walk, unless Victor is coming out to work on something. Garry does a lot of walking around the village, often he practices Russian while walking (he writes the words we are learning on little cards he carries with him) One day he got butted by a goat tied up on the side of the road while multitasking. He also walks or drives around to check out local farming practices. Lunch is often dinner as it is nicer to go out to the summer kitchen in the day than in the dark, although Victor installed a new motion sensor light on the house so I can see the steps. After lunch the boys may do an experiment for science. On Wednesday (and Saturday) mornings Garry and I head off to Russian lessons for an hour and a half. I was teaching English after this on Saturdays, but the H1N1 school closing have stopped this, we may start up after we are home for Christmas, but the schools will having regular classes on Saturday to make up for the three week closing, so we will see what happens. Occasionally we drive into Dnepro in the afternoon to be special visitors in one of our English teaching friends from Morningstar church’s classes- everyone loves a native speaker of English, and it is an opportunity to use a Bible story for younger classes. Lately dinner has been make your own sandwiches in the electric sandwich maker, Garry and the boys love to make ones with hot pepper flakes, tomato paste, meat and cheese. Then we watch TV or videos, and check our email (and facebook) on the cell phone computer access before bed.
Sunday morning we normally head off to Dnepro at 9:15- church starts at ten with praise singing and after church is over (12:30 unless there is communion) we take the guys to the mall at Daffi for free wi-fi (this is when I update the blog) and their favourite dinner out (except Mc Donald’s) Puzata Hata (Ukrainian food- you can point at what you want- Seth and Jonah get chicken Kiev and potato vereniki ). Two Sundays we have attended church in the village- we were invited for a harvest celebration with a Canadian speaking, and one Sunday we went and had a Bible Study in Russian with hymn singing, while the boys got to make a Noah’s Ark craft in Sunday school.
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